August 28, 2015

"Thus what we gain is Something, yet it is by virtue of Nothing that this can be put to use." ~ Lau Tzu

I recently went kayaking for the first time with a friend. As with many new experiences, the most challenging part was the beginning.

After putting my kayak in the water, I asked my friend, "How do I get into the kayak without tipping over?" He said, "Keep one foot on the dock, put the other foot in the kayak, and sit down."

Simple enough, right? I should have asked what to do after I was in the kayak because, once I sat down, it was wobbling uncontrollably back and forth. By this time, my friend was well on his way, paddling farther and farther away from the launching dock.

Within a few seconds I realized my entire body was tense and I was trying to achieve balance through control. Although the water was calm, the wobbling got worse. Every time I tried to counter-balance a wobble to one side, it wobbled to the other.

What would I do? Fortunately my life experience out of the water gave me the response for what to do in the water -- do nothing. I immediately relaxed my entire body. The wobbling stopped.

Because of my misguided human desire to do something, nothing was accomplished. But when I did nothing, something was accomplished!

"Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world." ~ Hans Margolius

On the Monday following my kayak trip, the stock market opened to a fast and furious decline, marked by a 1,100-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

What would I do? And more importantly, what do I tell my clients to do, the people who have entrusted me to manage their life savings? The answer, as with the kayaking experience a few days prior, and in every extreme downturn in the stock market I've seen over the past 20 years, is simple: Do nothing.

In a few isolated cases, especially for my clients with at least 10 years to go to retirement, I bought more shares of stock mutual funds or ETFs, even as the market was dropping at a historic rate. But for the majority of clients, my advice was to do nothing. In both cases, our actions were near opposite of what they may have heard in the media.

As I type this, stock prices have returned to levels prior to the open on Monday.

"What is important in life is life, and not the result of life." ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

And on a final note with regard to doing nothing, you may have noticed I have posted nothing here at The Financial Philosopher for a few months.

A partial explanation is that I'm still working on my book, which I may now push to 2016 for publication. I'd love to have it finished sooner but I am more confident than ever that it will be something special and something that can help many people in their quest for mastery of life.

More importantly, I've enjoyed a full summer of spending time with my beloved and beautiful wife and sons.

And, as you may have guessed, the greatest moments we shared together were the times when we were doing nothing...

April 02, 2015

"And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy." ~ Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

I recently overheard a conversation between a group of friends who were discussing the idea of going on a vacation together. One person mentioned that the financial cost was a bit out of her budget and she suggested the group choose a destination that could be just as fun but at a lower cost.

One of the other people in the group said with frustration, "Come on! Why are you always so cheap?"

This is where the conversation began to get interesting.

As it turns out, the person on a budget was a stay-at-home mom who had given up a career to raise her children. She replied, "Yes the vacation sounds like fun but we've had many great times together without spending so much money."

The frustrated person, looking more frustrated, said, "You should go back to work, or at least a part-time job, so you can have more money to do things like this."

The stay-at-home mom said, "But why would I do that? I'm already doing what I love. Earning more money would just take time away from my children. I also enjoy my free mornings when I can take a walk on the beach or go to the gym. Why would I give that up?"

I was not able to hear much more of the conversation but I was reminded of the valuable lesson taught in the Fisherman's Parable.

In the parable, a rich businessman on vacation stumbles across a poor fisherman and his child playing on a beautiful beach. The businessman tries to convince the fisherman that he could make more money if he would spend more time fishing, instead of playing around on the beach with his child.

The businessman further explained that the fisherman could work longer and harder hours to expand into a large fishing and boating business and make even more money, then ultimately retire rich and do whatever he wanted to do.

The poor fisherman replied, "But why would I do that? I'm already doing what I love."

In reality, with regard to happiness and total well-being, the "poor" fisherman is the rich one and the "rich" businessman is poor.

Part of this lesson, and the one the stay-at-home mom had obviously learned, is that work and wealth derive from love.

"It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite." ~ Soren Kierkegaard

Another lesson here is that modern society and social conventions teach us that the best things in life are purchased with money. An example is the life-long pursuit of retirement and the so-called financial freedom.

I've written before on the irony and paradox of financial freedom. Conventional wisdom says that freedom is best obtained by financial means. But this is an illusion. This financial pursuit can take decades of time, which is often the majority of any given person's life, and it is not commonly accomplished by a career or a combination of jobs that can be considered "doing what you love." In fact, there are countless numbers of people who feel it necessary to stay in a job that don't like (or they even hate) because "the money is good."

The irony of this all-too-common scenario is that the sacrifice required for financial freedom is a form of slavery -- it is imprisonment for a majority of life for the purpose of being free for a minority of life.

Yes, money is a necessary tool for survival in the modern world. But money does not make you live. And yes it can be challenging to do what you love if "what you love" does not quite pay the bills...

December 31, 2014

"Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world." ~ Hans Margolius

In this New Year, 2015, I will publish my first book. I write this not as an advertisement but as a personal and public commitment to complete it!

The final chapter is on reflection and I thought this New Year's Eve is appropriate timing to share with you some of my unedited notes, along with some quotes that will be included in the chapter:

"Reflecting is where we end this book but it is also where we began; it is the act of tapping on your own shoulder to be sure you are awake, to be sure you are alive and living a life of authenticity, meaning and purpose—being here now and not somewhere else, not wishing or wanting to be someone or something else other than yourself. And so, in a sense, reflecting is not an ending or a beginning but rather a perpetual beginning again. Therefore the best kind of reflecting is not recollection: Every day and every moment is a new beginning; and every time you reflect, you begin again. In time, and with practice, reflection becomes nearly effortless and instantaneous. You easily return to Being because you know where to find it—beneath the covers of the outside world—you reflect, you think, you meditate, you pray; you connect and reconnect and return to life anew." ~ Kent Thune

"It's quite true what philosophy says, that life must be understood backwards. But one then forgets the other principle, that it must be lived forwards. A principle which, the more one thinks it through, precisely leads to the conclusion that life in time can never be properly understood, just because no moment can acquire the complete stillness needed to orient oneself backward." ~ Soren Kierkegaard

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The information on this site is provided for discussion purposes only, and should not be misconstrued as investment advice. Under no circumstances does this information represent a recommendation to buy or sell securities.